Spend a morning at a Hawaiian farmers’ market, and you’ll leave with a basketful of tuberoses, an earful of soft Hawaiian dialect and a recipe for durian, the spiky fruit that smells like old socks and tastes like bananas and cheese. You’ll also leave with a taste of Hawaiian culture.
Hawaii’s farmers’ markets were started to help local farmers and to give residents a place to buy fresh fruits and vegetables at better-than-mainland prices. For visitors whose only contact with Hawaiian culture is getting onstage with the hula dancers at the hotel luau, these markets are a terrific opportunity to sample mango jam and squeeze rainbow papayas alongside the great-grandchildren of Polynesian kings and queens.
But getting a glimpse of real Hawaiian culture isn’t the only reason to visit an island farmers’ market, especially if you’re staying in a condo with a well-equipped kitchen. Shopping with the locals can also save you money. Those $26
mahi-mahi-in-macadamia-nut-crust entrees washed down with $10 mai tais tend to add up over the course of a vacation.
On the other hand, you can gather up a basketful of farmers’ market guavas and pineapples, oyster mushrooms and lettuces, stop at a nearby fish market and use your condo-issued blender and frying pan to prepare an inexpensive and genuinely Hawaiian dinner.
Maui, Hawaii (the Big Island), Kauai and Oahu have organized their own farmers’ markets. Some are held weekly, others run two or three times a week, and all can be found near the major tourist centers.
Maui
The Farmers’ Market of Maui I, better known as the Market at Suda’s Store, may look small, but it carries everything from local strawberries to homemade granola, long-stemmed birds-of-paradise and olive spread.
The stands are staffed by young transplanted mainlanders in puka shell necklaces who are happy to hack off a piece of Maui Gold pineapple or any other exotic fruit you want to try. Ask to sample the baseball-sized green fruit called cherimoya. The outside may resemble the hide of a dinosaur, but the creamy white inside is sweet and perfumey.
The setting for this market is a gravel parking lot at the west end of Kihei Road, not far from the strip malls and condos of Kihei. And while it isn’t scenic, the location couldn’t be more convenient. After you load up on Maui-grown corn and avocados, you can wander into the ramshackle Suda’s Store and pick up some fresh fish. Among the detergent and dusty bottles of soy sauce, Roy Suda sells just-caught local fish, such as hapu, onaga and monchong as well as Kona-raised live lobster.
Maui’s other big market is the Maui Swap Meet near the Kahului airport, which is part farmers’ market, part craft fair and part garage sale. It gives equal space to plastic laundry baskets and star apples, old Legos and jars of banana chutney. Here you can buy Maui onions and get a henna tattoo, stock up on guava jelly or purchase a little silver fairy with real butterfly wings.
The Maui Swap Meet sprawls over an enormous parking lot, with most of the produce vendors clustered together. At one end, kaukau (lunch) wagons sell prepared foods to help shoppers keep up their strength – hot dogs and hot saimin (noodles in broth), as well as chow fun and bento boxes.
The Big Island
Turn up at the Kailua Village Farmers’ Market in the Kona Inn parking lot, and you’re certain to be asked if you want to try “the world’s greatest macadamia nut peanut brittle.” The question will come from Kona Kay, who just happens to be the originator of the peanut brittle. Kona Kay’s repertoire also includes pickled mango, candied papaya, smoked marlin jerky and salted dried plums called sweet li hing mui.
Kailua Village Market also is home to stalls selling passionfruit syrup and pineapple honey, strawberry papayas and purple-veined orchids.
The Kaiwi Square Market takes place in an industrial part of town, not too far from the Kona airport. More a local than a tourist destination, Kaiwi Square specializes in Hawaiian delicacies: fiddlehead ferns, the tender, unopened curls of fern fronds that are delicious blanched or stir-fried; slipper potatoes, resembling pink dinosaur feet; and rombutans, prickly lichee nuts that are cut in half to reveal the edible white grape inside. The Kaiwi Square Market also offers local items such as fried pork skin, fresh tofu and sweet rice wrapped in banana leaves.
Just down the road is Marina Seafood at Honokohau Harbor. This small fish market sells the catch brought back from local boats. Check out the photos on the wall, and you’ll find one of Bill Clinton’s mother, posing with her record-breaking marlin.
The twice-weekly Hilo Farmers’ Market is the biggest in the islands. Even locals from Oahu hop a plane to shop here on Saturday mornings. It’s such a big event, the vendors bring their entire families to help sell. With any luck, you’ll come upon Andy Castillo, a 99-year-old grandfather, who wears a Hawaiian shirt and a porkpie hat, and plays his mandolin for the shoppers.
The Hilo Farmers’ Market is one of the few covered markets in the islands, and its rows of vendors sell every variety of local fruit and vegetable, including some of the more unusual ones, like jabotigawas, deep purple Japanese grapes with a tart skin, and wiapples, small yellow apples that are a favorite of older Hawaiians.
You can order a Momi tea, a chilled black tea with milk and tapioca pearls. Or, if you’re hungry, try prepared kimchee and pande coconut buns.
A short drive from the Hilo farmers’ market is Suisan Fish, one of the biggest and best fish markets in the islands. Suisan Fish sells to all the expensive restaurants on the Big Island and to savvy locals who know where to go for soft-shell crab and sea cucumber. At Suisan Fish, you can load up on Manila clams and fresh oysters, as well as a delicious black fish called moi, which is an island favorite and rarely shows up on restaurant menus. Suisan Fish also carries dried anchovies and squid crackers, which are worth buying just for the cross-eyed squid on the bag.
Stocking a condo kitchen:
No matter which market you shop at, the key to cooking in your condo is keeping it simple. Don’t spend a bunch of time and money stocking the cabinets with flavored vinegars and exotic spices. Instead, look for Shaka-Ono Hawaiian-style seasoning and Alaea Sea Salt with baked Hawaiian clay, two locally made dry spice mixtures. Rubbed on moi and moonfish before grilling, or sprinkled over corn on the cob and arugula, these seasonings will turn your farmers’ market finds into restaurant-worthy meals for a lot less than $26.
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Markets at a glance
Maui:
Farmers’ Market of Maui I, South Kihei Road in the parking lot of Suda’s Store, Kihei, 808-287-0537. Held Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm. Terrific selection of produce, as well as jams, jellies and chutneys.
Suda’s Store, South Kihei Road, Kihei, 808-870-0853. Roy Suda sells fresh fish, ahi and seaweed salad and live Kona-raised lobsters.
Farmers’ Market of Maui II, Hawaiian Motors parking lot across from Honokowai Park near Lahaina. Held Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7 until 11 a.m. 808-287-0537. This is the same market as Farmers’ Market of Maui I, which spends its afternoons at Suda’s Store.
Maui Swap Meet, South Puunene Avenue next to the post office in Kahului, near the airport. 808-877-
3100. Held Saturday from 7 a.m. until noon and Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. 50-cent admission for adults. Part craft fair, part garage sale and part farmers’ market.
Big Island:
Kailua Village Farmers’ Market, in the Kona Inn parking lot on Alii Drive, across from the Hale Halawai. Held Wednesday, and Friday through Sunday from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. Don’t miss Kona Kay.
Kaiwi Square Market, off Hawaii 19 in the Kaiwi Square parking lot, Kona. Held Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. This is very much a locals’ market.
Marina Seafood, off Hawaii 19 at Honokohau Harbor, Kona, 808-326-2117. Try the special blend of rubbing spices.
Hilo Farmers’ Market, Kamehameha Avenue and Mamo Street, Hilo, 808-969-9114. Held Saturday and Wednesday from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. The big kahuna farmers’ market.
Suisan Fish Co., Banyan Drive, Hilo, 808-935-9349. Supplies fresh fish to all the expensive restaurants on the Big Island.
Kauai:
The County of Kauai Farmers’ Market travels around the island. The schedule is as follows: Monday at noon in Knudsen Ball Park on Maluhia Road in Koloa Town; Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center; Wednesday at 3 p.m. at the Kapaa New town Park at Kahau and Olohena streets; Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at the Kilauea Neighborhood Center off Lighthouse Road; Friday at 2:45 p.m. at Vidinha Stadium on Hoolako in Lihue; and Saturday at 9 a.m. at Kekaha Neighborhood Center off Kaumualii Highway in Kekaha. Call 808-821-1000, or visit www.trykauai.com/Kauai_Farmers_Markets.htm.
Oahu:
The People’s Open Market Program sponsors daily farmers’ markets all over the island. To see the schedule and locations, visit www.co.honolulu.hi.us/parks/programs/pom/sked.htm.
For general information on all Hawaiian farmers’ markets, go to www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/states/hawaii.htm.
